WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.

We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.

"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence

“Land Day” commemorates the killing of
six Palestinians, 96 wounded and 300 arrested on March 30, 1976, in the
Galilee. The anticipated peaceful demonstration by Palestinians was a response
to Israeli authorities that had announced the confiscation of 5,500 acres of
their land which Israel classified as "closed military zones" for
“security and settlement purposes.”

At a March 27, 2010, rally in the village
of Izbet Al-Tabeeb, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad marked “Land Day”
by calling on Palestinians to “hold on to their lands” instead of “a popular
uprising in the West Bank” and that “every day in which the Palestinian people
hold on to their land is ‘Land Day’.”

Fayyad responded to Hamas’ call for a
third Intifada to protest Israeli policies, “This is our answer to those
who call for a popular uprising in the West Bank…The Palestinian people
constantly resist the occupation. The next phase is an uprising and an
intifada. Those who call for an intifada now do not know what it means. This
call stems from a lack of understanding of the word ‘intifada’ and a lack of
understanding of the Palestinian nation and the character of its struggle. The
steadfastness in our lands is our answer to those who call for a popular
uprising in the West Bank.” [1]

Other speakers at the rally included
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi of the Palestinian National Initiative Party,
Palestinian Parliament Members Mahmoud Al Aloul, top Fatah official Hatim
Abdulqader, Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery and Arab Knesset Member Mohammad
Barakeh.

Avnery slammed Israel’s policies,
saying they led to the events of 1976 and called for Israeli-Palestinian
cooperation to advance peace. Barakeh urged the Palestinian political factions
“to seek unity to face Israeli policies” and that “this day is a letter to the
Israeli government that the Palestinians are unified against the Separation
Wall and its policy against our brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” [Ibid]

On “Land Day” in
2006, just after the break of dawn, a group of Israeli Jews and I traveled
three hours north of Jerusalem to the lower Galilee municipality of Sakhnin, an
Arab village whose land continues to be grabbed and colonized by Israel.

Ronnie, a Canadian who moved to Israel with the desire to help build a civil
society, is a co-founder of Women in Black and active with Machsom Watch/women
at the checkpoints who watch for and report on human rights abuse. She laughed
as she told me, "A friend said that I am so Left that if I ever gets to
heaven I will probably argue with God that those in hell just didn't get a fair
deal."

Ronnie turned serious and continued, "Religion is used as a cover, but
it's all about the land! It's convenient to claim one is doing something for
God but the laws are made to take the land. We don't have settlers in Israel
-the common name for illegal colonists in the West Bank-we just take it! First
it is claimed to be for military reasons then it'll become a park or
agricultural land that the state has confiscated.

"The Palestinians who did not leave in '48 but remained here still have
lost their land. They can't get permits to build... I am opposed to the
occupation and as an Israeli Jew I want to see justice for all...and I refuse
to be enemies with anyone."

Over 100 Israeli's, Arab Christians, Muslims, atheists, communists and
internationals attended a tour of Sakhnin and conference coordinated by
Batshalom and The Women's Coalition for Peace and Justice.

I learned that not only had Israel confiscated acres of the most fertile of
Palestinian land they had also placed land mines all over the land. Many farmers
and other innocent ones lost their lives or legs, so people quit caring for
their groves and the Israeli government declared the village of Sakhnin a
military zone.

A few years prior, the President of Israel had declared that the people of
Sakhnin, deserved to have their land back. But the Israeli county of Misgav,
abetted by the Israeli Land Authority continued to collect taxes from the
indigenous people but not return any land or issue permits for Palestinians to
build upon their legally owned property.

An Israeli peace activist commented, "In 2000 during Land Day, hundred's
of nonviolent protesters were arrested and we were hit with tear gas and rubber
bullets. Name it and we have had it!"

Another told me, "I am an Israeli Jew and I am responsible to change
something about this situation. We all need to do this together."

The speakers spoke in Arabic or Hebrew, and my interpreter was Aliyah [Hebrew
for "Go Up"], who was born in St. Louis, grew up in Cleveland and
moved to Israel in 1948.

She told me, "My Father was born in Jerusalem and I was a Zionist, but now
I am not so sure. I still want the Jewish people to have a state but it must be
honest and moral, I don't want a piranha state! Before 1967 I was euphoric! My
husband and I began to learn that there were Israelis who you could call
prophets, who said we must return the land and make peace. Then a
fundamentalist Jewish group, The Gush Emunim began erecting the settlements in
the newly possessed land.

"When Israel went into Lebanon I was infuriated! I demonstrated against
the massacres at Shatila and Shabra. Eighteen years of Israel in Lebanon is
what built up the Hezbollah! The Israelis supported the group at first because
they hoped the Hezbollah would be against the Palestinian refugees in South
Lebanon."

I inquired, "Isn't that what Israel did with Hamas? Didn't they originally
support Hamas to be a wedge against the PLO?"

Aliyah replied, "Yes, stupidity repeats itself!"

In the Northern part of Israel 53% of the population are Jews who control 80%
of the land. Palestinians are 47% of the population with only 20% of the land.

Sakhnin’s 25,000 people are allowed to access less than 10,000 dunums of their land
but they only control half of that. In 1948 they owned and controlled 170,000
dunums.

A Defense Industry and Army base complex a few miles from where we stood had a
most mysterious warehouse. Aliyah remarked, "No one knows what is going on
inside, but it may be a nuclear reactor. The municipality asked the army to
develop in another direction for there is a school over there too. The Israelis
are allowed to expand anywhere, but the people of Sakhnin are not allowed
permits to builds on their own land.

“I really became aware of what was going on in the '80's. I had been invited to
a meeting of The Bridge for Peace and Coexistence, which is a group of Arab and
Jewish activists. A man asked me where I was living and when I answered
Bneitz-ion. He calmly and politely told me ‘That is my Uncle's land.’’

Since 1967 Israel has confiscated more than 750,000 acres of land from the 1.5
million acres that comprise the West Bank and Gaza. Most of the land has been
confiscated to make space for settlement expansion and bypass roads that are
for the exclusive use of Israeli colonists.

Since 1948, Israel has confiscated nearly 85 percent of the
territory within the Green Line from Palestinians. Most of this land was taken
from the 750,000 Palestinian’s who were made refugees when they were evicted or
fled in fear during the 1948 war.

The Israeli Knesset (Israeli parliament) has passed dozens of laws in defiance
of U.N. Resolutions and International Law, such as The Absentee Property law
and the Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law.

This law, which in Arabic is called 'Qanoon Elhader/Gayeb', was adopted in
March 1950. It classifies anyone who was a citizen or resident of one of the
Arab states or a Palestinian citizen on November 29, 1947, but had left his place
of residence-even to take refuge within Palestine- as an 'absentee'. Absentee
property was vested in the Custodian of Absentee Property who then 'sold' it to
the Development Authority. This effectively authorized the theft of the
property of a million Arabs, seized by Israel in 1948.

Adopted in July 1950, this law was devised as a legal ploy to shield the
Israeli government from the accusation that it had confiscated abandoned
property. The Development Authority is an independent body empowered to sell,
buy, lease, exchange, repair, build, develop and cultivate Palestinian
property. None of these transactions could take place except with a Jew or a
Jewish entity!

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 clearly asserts that the
"occupying power cannot move segments of its own population to parts of
the land it occupies," or make any demographic or territorial changes that
are not in the interest of the occupied. Furthermore, provisions of the Fourth
Geneva Convention have unquestionably condemned Israel's settlement activities
and demanded the ceasing of "all" settlement expansion by Israel.

UN Security Council Resolution 681 (1990) confirmed that the Forth Geneva
Convention is applicable to the Occupied Territories and thus Israel's
compliance is mandatory.

Israel's illegal settlement expansion and land confiscation
continues unabated. The Israeli separation wall, which has been deemed illegal
by the International Court of Justice was described by a UN report as a
“creeping annexation” and confiscation of the most fertile of Palestinian land
and water sources.

In 2007, Hannah
Mermelstein, a co-founder of Birthright Unplugged who lives in Boston,
Philadelphia and Ramallah wrote regarding “Land Day” that, “On March 20, 1941,
Yosef Weitz of the Jewish National Fund wrote: ‘The complete evacuation of the
country from its other inhabitants and handing it over to the Jewish people is
the answer.’

“Yosef Weitz's wish was granted. In my name, and in the name of Jewish people
throughout the world, an indigenous population was almost completely expelled.
Village names have been removed from the map, houses blown up, and new forests
planted. In Arabic, this is called the Nakba, or catastrophe. In Israel, this
is called ‘independence.’

“As we approach the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel, the 60th
anniversary of the Nakba…Let us remember more than 6 million people whose basic
human rights have been deprived for 60 years, and let us, as Jewish people with
a history of oppression and a tradition of social justice, work for the right
of indigenous people to return to their land. This is our only hope for true
peace and security in the region.” [2]

"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine

"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas

Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa

“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946

The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright

“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK

Establishment of Israel

"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel